Above: the view from the parking lot of Inside Out Gallery in Traverse City, Michigan. Below, a stitch of the gallery’s inside, where Circle of Blue’s staff gave an hour presentation to more than 125 friends, family, and community members. Click image to enlarge.

It’s fun to reflect on all that we’ve accomplished in 365 days. I have to admit, I’d actually forgotten about a lot of the stuff that we did on the list above until I started this blog.

It’s so easy to live in the here and now, especially in the news business. We focus on what’s new, what’s timely, what’s trending. But just as important, I think, is to reflect on where we’ve been so that we have a better idea of where we’re going on our current trajectory, as well as where we want to go. It’s important to make note of the good, the bad, and the ugly so that we can better evaluate if we want to make modifications to the path that we’re on. Reflection leads to introspection, and from that comes new ideas, new ways of thinking, new ways of doing.

By pulling together this Year In Review blog and sharing it with all of you, as well as my colleagues, I’m hoping that we at Circle of Blue can learn what holes we have in our reporting; I’m hoping that you can help us to fill in those holes by sending us your stories; I’m hoping that by recognizing our history, we can start to hone in on what historical impact we wish to make in the world of water. A few good quotes to keep in mind:

“Those who don’t know history are destined to repeat it.” –George Santayana*, 1905

“That men do not learn very much from the lessons of history is the most important of all the lessons of history.” –Aldous Huxley, 1959

“You have to look at history as an evolution of society.” –Jean Chrétien, 2003

We at Circle of Blue are always evolving, always changing, always growing, always ebbing, always flowing. Small nonprofit organizations have to, I think – their nimbleness is what defines them. I find that especially true in the 21st-century newsroom during an era when budget cuts are leveling environment and science reporting almost everywhere. Fortunately for me and my colleagues, we get to work in a newsroom that values good science over speed and good storytelling over sensationalism.

Following incremental measures to clean up its air and water, China took a big step in 2014 to address its role as a contributor to global warming. We’ve been told by our partners that our Choke Point: China from 2010 and 2011 led to two of the six major provisions in the pact, signed with the United States in November. Then on December 12, China turned the spigot on the central line of its South-North Water Transfer, sending the first gush of water from Danjiangkou Reservoir along the 1,432-kilometer route to Beijing and other cities in the country’s dry north, which we first reported on in 2011.

As Circle of Blue reported in 2011, the international community’s failure to respond quickly to early warnings of drought and food insecurity in 2011 led to the first famine of the 21st century, which devastated the Horn of Africa and killed 260,000 people. In 2014, Somalia began showing similar signs of an impending food crisis, and aid organizations are urging action before it is too late.

But the outlook for news is not all bad everywhere you look – in fact, I’m quite optimistic.

Through the power of social media and a better-connected world, stories from the heart of the Amazon to the wintry depths of the Arctic are now much easier for reporters to find. Linking sociological trends in disparate small towns is as easy as the click of a mouse and a few hours of good research. Moreover, anyone with a text-messaging cell phone can have a voice and be heard (or have an ear and listen), according to a United Nations study from earlier this year that said there are almost as many cell-phone subscriptions (6.8 billion) as there are people on the plant (7 billion). Talk about accomplishments (and it took less than two decades to achieve this).

My point with all of this is that I hope that you continue to read our stories and the stories of other trusted news organizations – the new and the old, the big and the small, the general and the niche. Regardless of the size of their budget or their staff roster, I hope that you continue to support those organizations that are getting it right and push them to keep getting it right. Likewise, I hope that the reflection and introspection of our own staff and funders propels us forward on the path that we collectively choose.

#WaterNews of 2014

On that note, here you’ll find our Top 10 stories from 2014, as selected by my colleague, our senior editor, Keith Schneider. Compare them with our staff-picked Top 10 lists from 2010, 2011, and 2012. Below you’ll find links to all our stories from 2014 that I have collected and categorized. Compare them with the list of our stories from 2012.

Here’s a look ahead at what the New Year will bring.

Also check out our 2015 preview stories, written by my colleague, Brett Walton. News headlines are often dominated by the big, unexpected events, but some stories come with advance warning. Every year, Brett picks stories that he thinks are going to be big in the coming months, and this year he has an international preview and a U.S.-specific preview. Last year, Brett predicted continued drought-related problems for California, Texas, and the Colorado River Basin, as well as new policy changes for states across the union. He also previewed two satellite missions that would help further our water-data knowledge. Check out his 2013 and 2012 previews to see how he has evolved the way in which he lays out these previews, a change that came from feedback we received from a University of Michigan environmental journalism class.

What are the trends in our reporting that you see? What are the holes?As always, we want to hear what you think. What are the big stories, the untold trends, the unsung heroes? Who are the new heroes? Contact us via Twitter, Facebook, or email us at circleofblue.org/contact.

–Aubrey Ann Parker, outreach coordinator

*Actually this is a commonly misquoted paraphrase or variant of Santayana’s actual quote, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”